Consumers are increasingly demanding smaller feature rich wireless communication devices. One way to achieve a smaller cell phone with more functions and features is to produce a cell with two configurable housing portions. One such configuration is a flip phone that opens like a clam shell. Other configurations include sliding phones, in which one portion of the phone slides relative to another portion, and swivel phones, in which one portion of the phone swivels open in relation to the other portion of the phone.
Typically, a flip phone having a clam shell design includes a hinge. The hinge is a type of bearing that connects two solid objects and allows only a limited angle of rotation between them. Hinges are typically made of flexible materials or of moving components.
Generally, the hinge in a flip phone is used to connect a keypad housing member to a display housing member. Sometimes the keypad section is operatively coupled to the display section using a flexible printed circuit board (PCB). Additionally, the keypad section of the wireless communication device may also be operatively coupled to the display section with a wire bundles or cables. For example, in a traditional flip phone having a “clamshell” design, the display housing member is pivotally attached to a keypad housing member. Generally, the hinge extends the entire length of the edges of the housing members and pivotally connects the housing members together.
A clamshell flip phone having an S-hinge presents a variety of unique limitations that are related to the S-hinge. These challenges include proper alignment between each hinge arm and the S-hinge after repeated opening and closing of the flip phone. Yet another limitation with the S-hinge is the lack of a ground path through the S-hinge. Ground paths and their corresponding ground planes affect the performance of an antenna so that in one configuration the antenna performs optimally and in another configuration the antenna performs sub-optimally.
One attempt to overcome these challenges has been to use a glue joint to fixedly couple each hinge arm to the S-hinge. However, the glue joint has been unreliable and exhibited alignment issues. Additionally, there has been no reliable ground path through the S-hinge due to the glue joint, thereby affecting antenna performance.